


Things Falling Apart

by AVirtoMusae



Series: Timeless Hogwarts [1]
Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 02:18:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15378558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVirtoMusae/pseuds/AVirtoMusae
Summary: Jiya is at Hogwarts for her fourth year, and she's convinced she's never been more stressed about school -- between her "internship" with the Charms professor, her father being ill, and trying to make prefect next year. Fortunately, she has her friendship with Rufus to keep her grounded.





	Things Falling Apart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ofcoffeeanddonuts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofcoffeeanddonuts/gifts).



Fourth year is utterly terrifying by Jiya’s estimation. One year away from O.W.L.s, and she’s starting up an apprenticeship with the Charms professor. The latter is Rufus’ idea, of course, because he’s had an in with the Charms professor ever since Professor Mason caught him developing his own spells back in first year. Jiya’s a year behind, and while she’s never been secretive in her love of charms, the fact she’s both Muggleborn and a natural seer have kept her from being taken quite as seriously as Rufus has been. 

Rufus, unlike Professor Mason, has never underestimated Jiya from the first time they’d met on the train to Hogwarts. Jiya’d gotten hexed by a pair of Slytherins she now knew to be Emma Whitmore and Garcia Flynn simply because she hadn’t gotten out of the doorway in time, and Jiya had sent Emma back with a well-timed Expelliarmus. Whitmore had never quite forgiven her (the feeling was mutual), and though she thought Flynn might have been a bit amused, Jiya had never forgiven him for standing by while she got hexed. Jiya had run off to find a compartment. Rufus’ had been the only one open. Jiya doesn’t like being underestimated the way she is, but she does admit it can be useful.

They are only one week into fall term, and Jiya is already wanting to tear her hair out at her stress. She considers praying, but she was brought up in a fairly secular household mostly because her Shia Muslim mother and Armenian Catholic father never could quite agree on which tradition they would pass on to their kids. Needless to say, Jiya isn’t quite sure she would be able to find comfort in prayer no matter how much she sees it helps her parents. So, short of taking a Calming Draught, her options are thus: Cry to Rufus and their friends, annoy her brother, or send a letter home to her parents venting about all of it. 

Jiya, understandably, chooses to take all three options.

First she breaks down to her friends. Lucy and Rufus are immediate in their understanding. Rufus has, after all, been in this exact position before, and the pressure Lucy is under as the daughter of the Headmistress and the heir of her legacy is just as great. Wyatt, on the other hand, sulks for a bit about how no one gives him special opportunities the way the rest of them get them. Apparently, Jiya thinks, he is oblivious to the special attention and training that Professor Christopher (the one that’s the Head of Gryffindor, not the Head of Hufflepuff) gives him. 

Annoying Zaman is far too easy for his own good. For all that Zaman was terrified of not having magic like his sister, he is now the first Muggleborn Slytherin in what is certainly a century, and anything that could possibly tarnish his reputation irks him. Which means all Jiya really has to do is be affectionate to him. So, she makes sure to wrap her arms around him in a bear hug at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And, of course, she mentions sending a letter with Bill Nye to their parents and asks if there’s anything he might want to include.

Zaman has never quite cared for the name of her owl. Rufus, on the other hand, finds it hysterical and still chants, “Bill Bill Bill Bill Bill Bill,” whenever she mentions her owl. So, when Jiya asks, and Rufus starts his obligatory chant, Zaman covers his ears, turns beat red, and groans. “Tozz feek, Jiya. Could you not?”

“Sorry, bro. It’s my job.” Jiya bounced back over to the Hufflepuff table and started talking to a couple other members of her house until she could reasonably go off to the owlery. 

Lorena, a sixth-year Hufflepuff, offers to walk with her since she needs to send a letter to her mom. Blushing, Lorena admits that she’s asking for some help brewing contraceptives.

Jiya shrugs and tells her, “Hey, that means you’re smart. Smart is good.”

“Not everyone thinks so. I’m seventeen, unmarried, and not everyone in my family’s circles takes kindly to that,” Lorena shrugs. Grinning at the ground, she adds, “But thank you for saying that. It helps.”

“You’re taking initiative, and here I am whining to my parents about stress that I’ve entirely brought down on myself,” Jiya laughs. “So, good luck with the potion. If you need any help, you can ask my friend Rufus. He’s top in his year at Potions and Charms, so if anyone can help you discreetly, it’s him.”

“Thank you, Jiya,” Lorena says before they each attach their letters to the legs of their owls. “I might take you up on that. Where are you going next? I’ll walk with you to class.”

“I was going to meet Rufus actually. We were going to start some of our Charms work,” Jiya explains. “Well, more like he was going to try to convince me to help him convince the professor that coming up with a model lightsaber is a good use of his skills, and I’m going to remind him that I’m a Trekkie.”

Lorena raises an eyebrow, clearly not understanding most of what has just been said. “I’ll leave you to it then.” 

… 

As it turns out, fourth year is a lot less stressful after the first week, much to Jiya’s relief. She gets a response from her parents, who encourage her and tell her that she can do this. There is, of course, an unnecessary amount of parental pressure included in their words, but no parents are perfect, and Jiya counts herself lucky. Jiya and Zaman exchange a few words, mostly teasing and trying to irritate each other as much as possible, and then he goes and befriends Garcia fucking Flynn, one of the least favorite people of Jiya’s friend group. 

For all that Jiya hasn’t forgiven Flynn for not helping her against Whitmore on the train in her first year, Wyatt is the one that really can’t stand him. Apparently there was a nasty incident a couple years back involving an entrail-expelling curse a couple years back, and Wyatt, the recipient of said curse, has never quite forgiven Flynn. 

With good reason, of course. 

So Zaman hanging out with the wizard who is four years his senior is certainly not a welcome surprise. It’s all Jiya and Zaman can do sometimes not to hex each other in the hallways, and there’s certainly been a couple times where they haven’t quite managed that. Mostly, it’s been a couple of disarming and stunners, but there’s been at least one Melafors and one Cantis. 

Wyatt tries to go with Jiya everywhere, which means that Rufus also tags along too. Lucy comes too, more often than not, but she seems distracted. Jiya doesn’t know why except that it probably has something to do with her mother. Everything comes down to Headmistress Preston somehow, but Jiya doesn’t understand it. It’s in moments like these that she feels younger than her friends and truly left out. It doesn’t help that she knows they don’t really get it either. 

Rufus and Jiya work on their work for Professor Mason in an abandoned classroom off the 3rd floor corridor in just about the most hidden location possible. It makes Jiya a little wary, but she figures their experimental charms work could probably be rather dangerous if done wrong (which leads to the question of why Professor Mason is letting a fourth year and a fifth year do it, but Jiya doesn’t question it too much). Wyatt is practicing his duelling skills on a pie he’s stolen from the Great Hall. Lucy is curled up in a corner with a pile of schoolwork. 

Rufus is pretty sure he’s onto something worthy of the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries, and frankly, Jiya agrees with him. It seriously seems like he might have figured out how to mess with time just a little bit, as in he can send a small item forward in time by a minute. Jiya is pretty sure she’s onto something too, but hers isn’t so much to manipulate time as it is to combine muggle and wizard technologies, which she has wanted to do since first year. She misses Doctor Who and Star Trek, after all. And she needs to prove to Rufus how much better Trek is than Wars.

Professor Mason walks in. His steps falter as he takes in the scene before him. “Jiya, Rufus, what are they doing here?” Jiya and Rufus look over to Wyatt and Lucy, who are both now looking between their friends and the professor in alarm. 

“I’ll just leave, sir. Sorry,” Lucy mumbles, grabbing her belongings and clutching them to her chest as she flees the room. 

Wyatt does not seem so inclined to leave the room. “Slytherins,” he mutters, and both Jiya and Rufus shoot him a warning look.

Professor Mason just gives him a sardonic look and a, “Ten points from Gryffindor for attempting to use my house as an insult. As it happens, I quite like being Slytherin. Now run along and go play with your little wand elsewhere.” He makes a shooing motion with his hand as if to ward away a particularly nasty fly. 

Wyatt gives the professor a particularly nasty look that probably means he will try to take it out on the professor later somehow, perhaps by trying to convince his own Head of House that the Slytherin Head is up to no good yet again, and Jiya makes a mental note to supervise her hotheaded friend as much as she possibly can over the next few days. Even though Wyatt can probably stand to be taken down a couple pegs, Jiya doesn’t want him to spend the rest of the term in detention. 

Wyatt sulkily leaves the classroom, and Rufus and Jiya are left alone with their mentor. Professor Mason glares at the pair of them. Rufus completely freezes, and Jiya inches in front of him as thought to act as a human shield. “Sir, they’re our friends. We didn’t realize it would be a problem.”

“I told you that your work for me has to be secret. How, exactly, does telling your friends, one of whom is a Gryffindor, count as keeping it secret?” Professor Mason paces in front of the exit like a caged animal. 

Jiya swallows. “They won’t tell anyone.”

“No, I suppose they won’t,” Professor Mason agrees, “Not if I Obliviate them. Which I will now have to do, thanks to you two.” He runs a hand over his bald head. 

Jiya blanches, and she can feel the tension in Rufus behind her. She thinks he might faint, but she hopes he won’t if for his own pride. “You don’t need to Obliviate them. They won’t tell anyone. And why would they? They’re our friends.”

Professor Mason snorts. “Be that as it may, they are not my friends, particularly not that Gryffindor boy. He’ll blab to Denise first chance he gets and trust me, we don’t want that.” Professor Mason points his wand at their experiments. “This has to remain a secret from everyone.”

…

Jiya and Rufus don’t mention the internship to anyone else. Jiya’s pretty sure Professor would not take it well if she mentioned that she had told her Muggle parents, but the Professor really doesn’t need to know. Jiya does not like all the sneaking around she now has to do, and it is easy to tell that Rufus likes it even less than she does. She wonders if he’s going to have to start taking some Calming Draught before the winter holidays roll around. 

Lucy and Wyatt don’t bring up the internship either, and Jiya is certain that they have actually been Obliviated. It scares Jiya that their professor would do that, but besides Rufus, there is no one she can trust with that. On December 1, Jiya has her first panic attack. She knows Rufus has always been prone to them, but Jiya hasn’t been. No one in her family is. And that just serves to scare her all the more. 

She’s completely out of breath, and she can’t quite get enough air in to replenish it either. She’s doubled over and caught herself on the railing of the stairs. She’s far too exposed, and so she stumbles down the stairs and into an alcove near the landing. She nearly skins her knees for her effort. 

Her vision is still blurred and she feels as though she is underwater when she realizes that she hears voices. While that is usually not a good sign, it doesn’t take her to realize she is just overhearing an argument. 

“What are you talking about?!” the first voice demands, and Jiya is surprised enough that she doesn’t immediately recognize it as Lucy’s voice.

“Rittenhouse,” the second voice growls. Jiya is less surprised to recognize the voice of Flynn. 

“I have no idea what that means,” Lucy tells him firmly. Jiya peers around the corner to notice that Lucy has her wand trained on Flynn. Flynn seems a bit to unconcerned with that, and Jiya smirks a little at that. “And I don’t have to stand here and listen to your paranoid delusions.”

Flynn runs a hand through his gelled-back hair and seems more frustrated than Jiya has ever seen him. “It’s not a delusion, Lucy. It’s real. Rittenhouse is real.”

“Just because my mother is in charge of Hogwarts does not mean that I have a know in every single conspiracy theory the students come up with!” Lucy protests, jabbing Flynn with her wand. “Now off with you.”

“Lucy,” Flynn protests, “You have to believe me.”

Lucy frowns. “I didn’t give you permission to use my name, Garcia. Come back to me with evidence, and then we’ll see. For now,” she brushes past him, “adieu.” Lucy leaves Flynn staring after her, and Flynn makes no effort to hex or jinx her the way he might have if it were Jiya he was speaking to.

Jiya raises her eyebrows at this and continues to work on calming herself down in the alcove before fixing herself up and heading outside. She goes to the window and sees the first snow. She wishes Rufus were here to see it with her. Actually, she wishes that they didn’t have this secret apprenticeship or whatever with Professor Mason so that she and Rufus could just be normal kids and spend time together as they would. She misses feeling normal.

Eventually, Rufus finds her, and they watch the snow fall together before heading to dinner together.

…

Rufus spends the second half of the winter holidays with Jiya and her family as has been the case since her first year. He brings a bouquet of flowers and a treacle tart with him. For all that Zaman is a pain in her ass at school, he’s generally lovely at home and hugs Rufus. Jiya laughs and welcomes him inside. Her mother kisses both Rufus’ cheeks, and her father shakes his hand. Jiya drags Rufus off to the game room almost instantly so that they can spend the afternoon playing video games. 

Just before dinnertime, Zaman comes in and demands to join in playing a round or two of Super Smash Brothers and irritatingly manages to trounce both Jiya and Rufus. Rufus playfully demands to know if her brother is using underage magic to win. Zaman practically flounces away with a short, “I’m Slytherin. Naturally we’re the best at everything.”

“Not the best at being humble!” Jiya calls after him, but he’s already left the room. She turns to Rufus and leans her head on his shoulder. He ruffles her hair slightly while she swats at him, and they stay like that until Jiya’s dad calls them both down for dinner. 

The five days Rufus spends at Jiya’s house are, in Jiya’s definitely humble opinion, excellent. They spend most of their time watching various science fiction films and their nights watching the cheesiest horror films they can manage. They play some video games too, but at some point, Zaman always demands to spend time with them when they do that. Jiya’s mom makes them go for walks, too, and though Jiya and Rufus are both consummate nerds who hate everything to do with the outside, even Quidditch, they don’t really mind it at all. 

And then, on the sixth day, just one day before they’re meant to head back to Hogwarts, things go south. Jiya’s father collapses. Jiya, Zaman, and Rufus are sent to Rufus’ house. Rufus’ mom and Rufus’ little brother Kevin come to pick them up while Jiya’s mom takes Jiya’s dad to the hospital. 

Jiya’s struggling to breathe and cries while Zaman seems to have been shocked silent. Rufus sits awkwardly in the front seat of the car. It’s easy to tell he doesn’t quite know what to do when the people around him are falling apart. Jiya thinks she should care about that a little bit more than she does, but all she wants is to be at her parents’ sides. She wants to know what's going on, and she is distraught with the knowledge that she will inevitably be kept out of what her parents think are adult concerns. 

When they meet up with Wyatt at the train station, Jiya’s eyes are still red, and she clings to Zaman a little too hard. Zaman doesn’t really complain, which tells exactly how he’s doing. Usually he’d be fussing at Jiya for being too affectionate, but he isn’t. Jiya feels like she’s falling. 

They are all silent in the compartment on the way back. Wyatt doesn’t seem any more inclined to talk than Jiya or Zaman, if Rufus’ failed attempts to draw him into conversation are any indication. They are some of the last to get off the train, and it is on their way out that shit hits the fan. 

Jiya and Wyatt, who take the lead as they walk down the hallway, run into Garcia Flynn kissing someone, who Jiya quickly recognizes as Lorena Ramsey. They look so, so happy like that, and for a second, Jiya just wants to hurt them, to make them just as miserable as she is. She hates herself the second the thought crosses her mind. She shouldn’t want everyone else miserable just because she is. And with that, she’s tearing up again. She grabs Rufus’ hand and pulls him down the corridor in the opposite direction. Zaman follows them, looking more than a little confused at what’s just happened. They’re just about to get off the train when they hear something that sounds a lot like a jinx or a hex. Instinctively, Jiya puts herself in front of her brother and Rufus. She can’t deal with anyone else she cares about getting hurt, not with her father being sick with who knows what.

But then Jiya realizes what’s happened. Wyatt and Flynn are duelling. Jiya and Lorena’s eyes meet, and they both get out of the way as quickly as they can. Once Jiya, Rufus, and Zaman are back in Hogwarts, Zaman scampers off to his Slytherin friends. Jiya hugs Rufus like he’s her lifeline, and she breaks down crying.

… 

Jiya gets a letter from her parents a week later that explains that her father has cancer. Jiya’s run out of tears, and so she buries herself in work and research. What is she here for if she’s not going to be able to combine her magic and charms with muggle medicine. She needs her father to be better. She can’t bear to lose her family. Family has always been important to her and her parents and even her brother. When they moved to Wales from Lebanon, family was all they had. They didn’t even know the language. And now Jiya is facing losing one of her parents, one of her rocks through all the trials she has faced. 

Jiya is terrified. 

She can’t lose the stability on which she’s built herself.

A month into the term, she composites all her research into a folder and approaches Professor Mason. He takes one look at her research before setting it on fire with a simple spell. Jiya looks between him and what had been her research just seconds ago with wide eyes. How could he do this to her? “Sir?”

“You cannot work on this,” he informs her. “It’s too dangerous, and the amount of studying required is not possible within the time you would need it.” Jiya purses her lips, ready to argue that point, remind the professor that her mother has an MD and the doctors might be willing to explain things. “You need to be working on this project. It’s life or death, Miss Marri.”

“And this can quite literally be life or death for my father, Professor, so do tell me why whatever scheme you have is more important than my father’s life. Why can’t I save my father’s life?” Jiya is a step away from pointing her wand at the professor. It is only her desire to be a prefect next year that really keeps her from it. She wants to hurt him because she is hurting, and right now, he is the direct cause of her pain.

“Because this is the life and death of thousands throughout time, I will tell you that,” Professor Mason drawls. Jiya stares at him, her eyebrows raised, and she shrinks in on herself. She’s very nearly on the brink of tears. She may be a Hufflepuff, but she will not let this man have the satisfaction of seeing her cry. 

“If you tell me what you mean, are you going to Obliviate me like you did Wyatt and Lucy? Or are you actually going to tell me and Rufus the truth of why you’re having us apprentice you below the radar?!” Rufus walks in just then, and he looks taken aback by Jiya’s shouting. Jiya can’t bring herself to regret it. 

“Radar?” Professor Mason asks, confused. 

Sometimes, Purebloods confuse Jiya a lot. They act like they’re so superior to Muggleborns like herself, and yet they know absolutely nothing about Muggle technology. What would pure wizarding blood do against drone attacks and nuclear bombs and the internet? And what good is having magic if they can’t genuinely help people and help fix the world? It all seems so useless.

“That’s beside the point. You don’t want anyone to know about the projects you give us. Why? Why does this have to be secret?” Jiya crosses her arms. 

Rufus looks between Jiya and Professor Mason. “She’s right. You Obliviated our friends. You don’t want us to be seen. What would have stopped you from Obliviating us too?” He stops for a second. “You’ve Obliviated us before?! Why?”

“It is prudent. There are some things you can’t know. And if the wrong people find out about what we’re doing, then you are dead and I am discovered,” Professor Mason intones. He stands taller, but Jiya thinks he looks a bit like Atlas: tired and trying to support the entire world.

“By whom?” Jiya has a sinking feeling that perhaps Flynn isn’t quite as delusional as she and her friends like to think he is. He had been trying to convince Lucy of something called Rittenhouse. 

“Rittenhouse,” Professor Mason whispers after looking around to see if anyone else is there. As if anyone could be there without permission from one of the three of them. 

So Rittenhouse is real, and it makes the Slytherin Head of House terrified. And that is enough to let Jiya know that she should be very, very afraid. She looks over to Rufus, whose face seems to have been drained of blood. 

“Jiya,” Rufus whispers, “I remember things.” 

And with that, Rufus faints. Jiya stares at Professor Mason, who is frowning at Rufus. “That’s unusual,” the professor mutters.

And Jiya makes her decision: She points her wand at the professor and whispers, “Obliviate.”

She pulls Rufus from the room. 

…

It takes three days for Rufus to be verbal again. Usually he only goes nonverbal around the time of final exams, and he doesn’t usually stim quite as much as he’s done these last three days. And when he’s verbal again, his words are far more measured, each syllable the same length and his hands moving with each one to make sure it comes out properly. 

But Jiya decides it’s good enough. The two of them need to discuss what they’ve learned, and they probably need to talk to Lucy and Wyatt about it too. And, probably, they need to talk to Flynn because he knows about Rittenhouse, and he is invested in getting Lucy to understand too. But Flynn can wait.

Jiya, Rufus, Lucy, and Wyatt sit down by the Black Lake, on the far side from the castle. They don’t want to be found or seen. And so Jiya tells them all about the exchange she had with Professor Mason and how Rufus had fainted. She slaps Wyatt when he laughs about Rufus fainting. 

And then it’s Rufus’ turn. He explains how Professor Mason has been using Legilimency on him to learn of their group’s conversations. He explains how someone else — someone he recognizes as the Minister for Magic — has used it on him to keep tabs on Professor Mason. And he thinks, between it all, that he has learned Mason’s endgame and more than a little bit about Rittenhouse. 

Rittenhouse always wins. That is the first thing anyone ever learns about Rittenhouse. The second is that they have somehow been in control of Hogwarts and the Ministry since the days of the Founders. They’re the most Pureblood of Purebloods, allegedly founded by Slytherin’s grandson and heir, a David Rittenhouse. And they’re planning on using the Department of Mysteries to fund some sort of time travel scheme, and Whitmore is almost certainly working there. And Professor Mason is planning some sort of alternate time travel scheme for Rufus and Jiya to stop them. 

Jiya hates all of that. Wyatt stands up, clearly furious about the entire thing. He’s about to start casting spells at the water simply for some way to vent that fury on something other than his friends when Lucy grabs his arms and hisses about the Trace. 

They sit in silence for a while after they have their conversation. No one seems ready to say anything for almost ten minutes until Lucy manages, “So we need to do something. Flynn knows something. We could talk to him.” 

Wyatt gives Lucy an incredulous look. “Are you crazy? Flynn? The guy who hexes us in the hallways?!”

“Look, we need a plan and people who know things,” Lucy says, looking incredibly lost. “I just need to know some things. I’m going to tell my mother.”

Jiya has a very bad feeling about that idea, but she doesn’t tell Lucy no. Jiya lays down in Rufus’ arm, takes comfort in his warm presence beneath her. And she thinks she would really like to kiss him. 

If only everything didn’t feel like it was falling apart. 

And so she stares up at Rufus because he is her lifeline. And she kisses him. They’re both so incredibly young. Fourteen and fifteen only. Children still, teenagers. But even so, she knows her own mind. She adores her friend. She doesn’t know yet if it’s love. Her affection hasn’t had the time to mature, but she wants to be with him. And well, as far as first kisses go, it’s not bad. Awkward, but overall, it’s good. Jiya smiles against Rufus’ lips.

Everything is falling apart, but they will face it together somehow.

**Author's Note:**

> I am hopefully going to turn this into a series and expand on both the plot and explore from other characters' povs.


End file.
